In many business settings, such as with a retail store environment or a banking center, an associate/employee of the business benefits from knowing which of the individuals/customers are pre-existing or established customers of the business. However, unless the associate/employee visually recognizes the established customer from previous business encounters or the like, the associate/employee has no means of identifying established customers, absent some form of identifying action on behalf of the established customer. For example, grocery stores customers may present a loyalty card prior to completing a purchase or banking customers may authenticate themselves as established customers (e.g., present debit/credit card and provide requisite Personal Identification Number (PIN) prior to conducting a transaction at a teller station. However, such identification of the established customer not only requires action on behalf of the customer but is performed at or proximate to the time at which the established customer transacts. In many instances, the business associate/employee desires or would benefit from knowing which individuals are customers when the customer enters the business environment or shortly thereafter to ensure that the established customer is given proper deference or the like.
In addition to having a desire to know which of the individuals in the business environment are established customers when the individuals enter or are near the business environment absent overt actions by the customer to identify themselves, the associate/employee also desires and/or benefits from having ready access to other information about the customer, such as customer status, customer affinities, customer relationship (e.g., previous transactions and/or accounts held by the customer) and the like. This information may be desired by the associate/employee to better serve the established customer and to personalize the customer's experience with the business. However, current means of obtaining such information, such as having the associate/employee access a computer in order to look up a customer profile in a business database are impractical and inefficient, since the associate/customer has to adhere to other job responsibilities/functions.
Therefore, a need exists to develop systems, apparatus, methods, computer program products and the like that automatically, without requiring an action on behalf of the customer and/or associate, identify which individuals/customers within or proximate to a business location are established customers of the business. In addition, a need exists to identify the established customers at the onset of the established customer's presence at or near the business so as to ensure that the customer is given proper attention and service. In addition to identifying established customers, a need exists to provide immediate and/or on-demand access to information associated with established customers, such as customer status (e.g., VIP status or the like), customer relationship, customer affinities or the like so that the business associates can better address the established customer's needs and better the customer's experience at the business location.